Thursday, September 08, 2016

The Snake

Institutions circumscribe the
geofamilial lee, Wonder immanent to a child is
proclaimed more narrowly,And elided from earnest
expression when their lungs will takeBut rules, phlogiston, within
coils constitutive of the snake.Attuned to Haintune or Hartland, we escape the retardantEffect of the snake, watchful snake without eyelids, regardantWithout shoulder, yet stay, as when wakeful, within its purview.When someone is behind me,
following, though not to pursue,I like to create illusions,
abrupt transitions in my wake –In moments when they have
lost sight of me, at a curve, I makeDistance, fluctuant, running
but then resuming an apt paceBefore they cease to be
blinded and see me there, out of place,Too far ahead; but my
improbable progress, elected,Is assimilated perforce, and
would seem quite expectedAfter sense is soothed
according to that need in all of us,Personified at Hartland Quay,
where a baboon's proboscisEver ameliorates the
recumbent woman's agueBy resting against her hair.
She is sense. And the snake's purview,Not seeing dreams of
Haintune, or Hartland out of its range,Questions our unlikely
headway before accepting the change.Wonder immanent to a child, in mimetoliths, immense;See what we can get away with
when the snake defers to sense.